It’s spring! You’d think I’d be doing lots of weekend bike trips! Well, April saw a lot of special events on the weekends, so I didn’t really have time. Last weekend would have been a possibility, but it seemed like it was just about to rain the entire weekend, and besides, I was hosting that after dance party, so I had to get ready for that. So, ironically, my bike computer tells me that I biked substantially more in both January and February than in either March or April. Weird, huh? Two contributing factors: I’d rather bike in cold than in rain, and in each of Jan and Feb there was at least one nice weekend one which I biked (I even [wrote about the January ride](http://davidernst.net/blog/2006/01/09/bike-ride-with-presents/)).

Well, yesterday (Saturday) the weather was very nice, and I had very little planned, so… the beginning of the Summer riding season! Yahoo!

Well, not quite. I got out my gear, cleared the data on the GPS, and got on the bike. I needed air in my tires, which I prefer to get from gas stations because I don’t like my own pump. So I started out towards the gas station on 2nd street a mile or so west of my house. I knew they used to have free air, but they’ve changed brands since then, so I wasn’t sure (it’s now a Sunoco).

Well, I got there, and saw the air hose right where it used to be. But when I went to use it… there was no tip on the end to connect to my Schrader Valves (a term that I’d heard on Car Talk just a few hours previous so it was already swimming around in my mind). Shoot.

I took a roundabout route to the next gas station on 2nd St., a Citgo near the Sportsplex. I rode all around before I finally found the air hose hear the carwash. It was free too! And it worked! Man, having enough air in the tires makes a huge difference…

So, I was off! I biked down Clear Creek Trail, all the way to the end. Trying to work my way west of highway 37, I got onto a road called Church Lane. I realized that I’d been there before (it’s getting harder for me to find good bike routes outside of town that I haven’t been on). There was a decent hill on it, and I think I remember hearing a popping sound of some sort as I was fumbling with my gears. But, whatever the case, only a few difficult strokes into the climb, I knew something was wrong. I was in a much higher gear than my shifters indicated.

Sure enough, the cable that controls my rear derailleur was no longer attached to my gear shifter. Ugh. I didn’t know if it could be fixed or not, but a small investigations suggested that there was at least enough (or not obviously insuffucient) cable to attach. I set myself down right in front of a house there (there were no sidewalks or anything on this road) and investigated.

I am happy to say that with the possible exception of a wire cutter, my unbelievably cool bike tool did have every tool I wished for during the investigation. I used three or four different allen wrenches to loosen up a variety of things and investigate. Unfortunately, I couldn’t figure it out. Members of the family that lived in the home I was in front of walked by a couple of times, and I felt a little bad for installing myself right there. There weren’t a whole lot of options, though…

Anyway, I eventually gave up and just rode back in perma-high-gear on the rear derailleur. Once I was moving it was fine, but starting was definitely more annoying, and climbing hills was a real chore. *sigh* I did ride into town to Bikesmiths, but they told me that I’d need a new cable and they couldn’t fit me in in the last 1.5 hours of the day. *shrug* Ok. So, Monday…

And, when I got home, I figured I’d at least make sure I remembered how to get data out of my GPS, and after a little investigation I realized I hadn’t turned “tracking” on, so I had no data to retrieve!!

So, the first day of the summer biking season was kind of a bust. I still biked about 13 miles, actually, so I got a bit of exercise, but I had thought I’d bike about twice that… and I thought I’d have more fun…